Air cleaner



sept. 13, 1955 D. A. SCHULDT 2,717,659

AIR CLEANER Filed Sept. 2, 1953 (OIO'OO C)v C O O @@0109 O G "nite .AIR CLEANER Application September 2, 1953, Serial No. 378,080

6 Claims. (Cl. 183-'69) Generally stated, my invention relates to air cleaners and particularly to air cleaners of the kind employed in the intake systems of internal combustion engines, and which generally comprise a shell-like casing made up of two sections releasably secured together by a suitable anchoring or clamping means. More particularly, however, the invention relates to air cleaners of the character described wherein the primary :air inlet thereto is peripheral and located intermediate the ends thereof and is usually defined by a series of apertures through a peripheral wall thereof arranged in circumferentially-spaced relation thereabout to provide a pre-cleaning screen area.

Air cleaners of this kind are generally vertically disposed and the lower Section of the casing thereof is usually telescopically applied to the upper section in a manner to provide an air and liquid tight seal, and thesaid bottom section is closed at its bottom so as to define an oil cup or liquid reservoir, which must frequently be detached for the purpose of changing the oil or other cleaning liquid or otherwise servicing the cleaner. v

In air cleaners of the kind described, it has hitherto been common practice to form the peripheral air inlet passage or passages by perforating the peripheral wall of the upper section of the cleaner to provide the primary inlet passage or series of passages, and then to provide an internal wall or baffle for directing the air from such primary inlet passage or passages down into the oil cupforming lower section of the cleaner casing. This conventional type of construction is relatively complex and costly to produce and makes for diicult servicing in the field of the primary inlet opening or openings and the passage therefrom to the oil cup or reservoir of the cleaner.

In accordance with the instant invention, the abovementioned disadvantages of previous conventional constructions are obviated and other advantages achieved by spacing the main body sections of the cleaner to provide an inlet passage therebetween, and then detachably securing these body sections together by a split clamping band embracing said spaced sections, spanning the air intake passage therebetween, and apertured to provide the desired number and size of primary air inlet openings. This procedure vresults in a very material reduction in cost and makes for greatly simplified servicing in the field, particularly of the primary inlet opening or openings and the passage therefrom. The clamping band, which forms the intermediate section of the cleaner casing, can be of varying widths and can be provided with any desired number and size of perforations required to suit different types and conditions of service to be encountered.

This improved construction has a further advantage of eliminating the necessity for an air and liquid tight seal between the main body sections of the cleaner casing, and, of course, allows cleaning of the primary air intake opening or openings, either while the cleaner .casing is fully assembled or when the split clamping band is removed. Of course, in cases of partial plugging with certates Patent() l ice 2 tain kinds of material, cleaning of the primary inlet passages iis much more effectively and quickly accomplished with `the clamping .band removed.

The above and other highly important objects `and advantages of the invention will be amplified or `made apparent from the following specification, claims and appended drawings.

In the accompanying drawings, like characters indicate like parts throughout the views.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. l is a View in side elevation, with some parts broken away and some parts shown in axial section, of an air cleaner embodying the invention; and

Fig. .2 is a top plan View of the cleaner shown in Fig. l, but Ion a lreduced scale.

The air cleaner rillustra-ted is of the so-called wet variety, commonly employed in the air intake systems of internal combustion engines and the like, but adaptable, nevertireless, for other air cleaner applications. The outer shell of the cleaner illustrated comprises spaced upper and lower generally cylindrical sections indicated by 1 and 2, respectively, and an intermediate section 3, in the form of a split clamping band. The upper body or casing 'section 1 is closed at its top by a hood-like structure 4, yfrom which leads an air outlet tube 5 that is adapted to be coupled to the intake system of an internal combustion engine or the like, not shown, in a conventional manner. The bottom of the upper section 1 is lopen, except for an .interned annular retaining ange 6, and the interior thereof contains a suitable air pervious filtering material, which may take various forms, but which is shown as comprising a stacked series of corrugated woven wire screens 7.

'The generally cylindrical upper end portion of the cupforming lower section 2 is of greater diameter than the lower generally cylindrical wall portion of the upper section 1, and is concentrically applied about the latter to define therewith a downwardly directed annular air intake passage 8. The upper casing section 1 is formed to provide a radially outwardly projecting marginal anchoring flange 9, which overlies the downwardly directed .annular air intake passage 8, and the upper end of the cup-forming lower section 2 is formed with an outwardly rolled edge to provide a marginal bead-like anchoring flange 10. These anchoring flanges 9 and 10 provide axially spaced casing portions dening between them a radially directed marginal inlet passage or spacel to the downwardly directed annular air intake passage 8, which is normally spanned by the split clamping band 3, which band is apertured or perforated to provide a desired number of primary air inlet openings 11. The clamping band 3 embraces the spaced iianged portions 9 and 10 of the upper and lower sections, respectively, and is provided adjacent its upper end with an inwardly opening peripheral channel 12 for receiving the flange 9, and at its lower end portion said band is provided with an inwardly opening channel 13 for receiving the clamping flange 10. It will be apparent that the flanges 9 and 10 and their respective cooperating band channels 12 and 13 provide radially releasable interlocked joints between the spaced sections 1 and 2 and the intermediate clamping band-forming section 3.

In the preferred structure illustrated, the split clamping band 3 is formed at its upper end with a deep flange 14 overlying the anchoring flange 9 and which will positively retain the split clamping band 3 against downward displacement from the anchoring iiange 9 when the clamping band has been radially expanded suiiiciently to release the anchoring flange 10 of section 2 from the channel 13 of the band 3. This, of course, prevents accidental or unnecessary displacement of the band 3 from the main or upper section 1 of the cleaner during servicing periods requiring only removal of the cup-like lower section 2, but does not prevent forced spreading of the clamping band 3, as is necessary to etect downward removal of the clamping band 3, when desired. As another desirable feature, the portion of the band 3 forming the bottom side of the channel 13 is of slightly less radial depth than is the portion of the band 3 defining the lower wall of the channel 12, so that the band 3 will be retained against upwardly displacement from the flange 9 when expanded suiiiciently to allow downward displacement of the anchoring iiange 10.

Various dilerent forms of clamping devices may be applied between the adjacent opposite end portions of the clamping band 3 for the purpose of tightly tightening the split clamping band 3 about the anchoring anges 9 and 1G. For this purpose, however, I have shown and preferably employ a simple clamping device comprising a threaded wing bolt 15 passed through adjacent outturned ends 16 of the clamping band 3 and provided adjacent one of the tianges 16 with a nut 17 and adjacent the other of the anges with a stop ange 18.

Air cleaners embodying the instant invention may vary widely in construction, and particularly in internal contruction. In the particular cleaner illustrated, however,

efficiency is greatly improved by provision of a generally conical annular bathe 19 carried by the cup-like lower casing section 2 and provided with a series of circumferentially-spaced oil metering orices 20. It should be understood, however, that this baffle in itself forms no part of the instant invention.

When the air cleaner is placed in service, the oil cup forming lower section 2 of the casing will be supplied with a suitable cleaning liquid, such as lubricating oil, to approximately the level indicated by the broken line marked aligned generally cylindrical sections having axially 45 spaced peripheral portions defining a generally radially directed marginal space therebetween communicating with the interior of the casing, an intermediate section in the form of a circumferentially split clamping band embracing spaced peripheral portions of the iirst said sections and spanning the marginal space therebetween, said clamping band being apertured to dene a primary inlet opening to the interior of the casing, and a releasable clamping device applied between opposite end portions of the split clamping band.

2. The structure defined in claim l wherein said split clamping band has a multiplicity of apertures therethrough and provides a pre-cleaning screen at the entrance of the marginal intake passage.

3. The structure dened in claim l wherein the spaced casing sections and band define radially releasable interlocking joints.

4. The structure deined in claim 2 wherein the spaced casing sections and band deiine radially releasable interlocking joints.

5. The structure defined in claim l in which, as between each of the spaced casing sections and the band one thereof is provided with a radial detent and the other thereof is provided with a detent receiving recess, whereby to provide a radially releasable interlocking connection between the band and each of the spaced casing sections.

6. The structure deiined in claim l in which, as between each of the spaced casing sections and the clamp- .'m ing band one thereof is provided with a circumferentially extended radial ange and the other thereof is provided with a circumferentially extended radial ange-receiving channel, whereby to provide a radially releasable interlocking connection between the band and each of the spaced casing sections.

References Cited in the iile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,242,460 Enblom May 20, 1941 2,367,227 Lowther Ian. 16, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS 573,082- Great Britain Nov. 6, 1945 916,561 France Dec. l0, 1946 

